Mayor Rea among those who react to Toll Road columns

Readers express doubts, concerns about proposed lease of highway.

Readers express doubts, concerns about proposed lease of highway.

February 27, 2006|NANCY J. SULOK

Mishawaka Mayor Jeff Rea took exception to the last line of my column last week about the uncertain future of the Indiana Toll Road employees. I concluded the column by saying that Gov. Mitch Daniels seems to want us to take the lease of the Toll Road on trust, "and we all know what happens when we trust government to do right by us.'' "I will tell you,'' Rea wrote in an e-mail, "that I have a lot of employees that go above and beyond the call of duty each and every day to do what is right and best for our citizens. Many of those talented individuals could easily work somewhere else, and probably would have a whole lot less grief, make more money, and work less hours. I'm proud of the job each and every one of them do and am personally offended by your statement.'' I wrote back to the mayor to say I appreciated what he said, and I agree that we have many fine, hard-working men and women in government, especially at the local level. But then I cited several examples of actions that have caused citizens to mistrust their government:

We trusted Daniels when he said he wanted to have all of Indiana in the daylight-saving time zone. Early in the discussion, in fact, he said that he thought Central time was preferable. Then after the legislature passed DST, he created the fiasco of county-by-county choice. Then he changed his mind again when St. Joseph County chose Central time, and he recommended to the feds that we be put on Eastern time.

The governor insisted on a "Buy Indiana'' program, then turned around and pushed a lease of the Toll Road to a Spanish-Australian consortium. In addition, he wants to turn the Family and Social Services Administration over to a foreign operator.

We hope government would protect our valuable natural assets, but Barb Ziolkowski of New Carlisle wrote me an e-mail to complain that the governor is allowing the commercial development of Indiana Dunes State Park land for a hotel/resort.

Residents of southern St. Joseph County are upset about a large dairy farm proposed for Riley Road near Lakeville. Some residents indicated at a meeting last week that they don't trust the EPA or IDEM to protect the area from pollution of the air and water that could be caused by such a concentrated animal feeding operation. They also are disappointed that St. Joseph County does not have any laws to stop such a development. I told Rea that my mail, e-mail and phone calls have been overwhelmingly from people who are really angry at the state of affairs in government right now. A few correspondents made a point of saying they have supported Republicans in the past but won't again. A caller from Goshen said he feels betrayed. A woman from Rolling Prairie said she feels disheartened that her government is not representing the will of the people. Other readers suspect that Daniels is not being honest and forthcoming about the details of the lease. Like it or not, I wrote to Rea, there is a significant lack of trust in government right now. "It seems we are selling (or leasing) America in bits and pieces,'' said an e-mail from Therese Rice of North Liberty. "But those bits and pieces are important ones. Major highways and thoroughfares, ports where goods come and go, with little oversight by our government, to the Arabs no less.'' (She referred to a pending deal to allow a United Arab Emirates company to take over six major U.S. seaports.) Bill Seitz of LaPorte suggested we "follow the money'' to see how the leases will make a profit. "A minimal return on their investment,'' Seitz wrote, "would be about 8 percent annually. ... Eight percent return on $3.85 billion is a little over $300 million, each and every year for 75 years. Money that leaves the U.S.A.'' Marcia C. Porter of Rolling Prairie sent me a copy of a letter she received from state Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Portage. "The normal procedure for sale/lease of public property,'' Tallian wrote, "requires a regulated public bid process. Notably this bill does not require that." "In fact,'' she continued, "it goes further and gives the administration retroactive absolution, exempting them from compliance. That applies not only to this transaction, but to any other such transactions in the future. Future such deals would be exempt from public scrutiny until the deal is done! This is most disturbing.'' Corrine Fohrer of South Bend wrote to say that many people don't respond to issues like the Toll Road lease "because they have lost so much confidence in their ability to influence government." That's exactly the point I was making to Rea: People have lost their trust in government. "I believe you and the media play a big part in that,'' Rea fired back, "because you only report the bad, and rarely the good.'' Would the public be better off if we were not reporting the doubts they have about the proposed lease? You decide. Nancy J. Sulok's columns appear on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays. You can reach her at nsulok@sbtinfo.com, or by writing c/o South Bend Tribune, 225 W. Colfax Ave., South Bend, IN 46626, telephone (574) 235-6234.